On Thursday night, Philadelphia Phillies superstar Bryce Harper went ballistic in the third inning of the Phillies' 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates — and one young fan received a sweet souvenir because of it.
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Harper's outburst came after clearly checking his swing on what should have been ball four, before Angel Hernandez — the worst umpire in baseball — said he swung for strike three.
Bryce was just ejected for being correct pic.twitter.com/NUDPF9OOOB
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) September 28, 2023
Hernandez's missed call caused Harper to remove his helmet, bolt down the left field foul line where Hernandez stood, and yell "WHAT? THAT'S HORRIBLE!" followed with some gestures in the umpire's direction — which prompted Hernandez to eject Harper.
After Harper got some more words in, he accepted his ejection and walked back into the Phillies dugout — but not before he underhand tossed his helmet into a crowd of Phillies fans.
As it turns out, Harper's helmet was retrieved by the Dad of 10-year-old Hayden Dorfman — who, according to MLB.com, came to the Phillies game on Thursday in his powder blue Bryce Harper jersey, hoping to get Harper to sign it. One would assume receiving Harper's helmet would suffice.
Especially once Harper, after hearing who snagged his helmet, had some Phillies workers ask whether Dorfman wanted the helmet signed. The kid said yes, of course, so now his helmet has a Harper autograph in addition to an awesome story.
While Harper was happy his helmet found the perfect home, he was still upset about the missed call. During a postgame interview, Harper said, "It's just bad, just all around... I got to a 3-2 count, I took a slider down and in, obviously didn't [swing]. Wasn't even thinking about [strike three] in that situation. I was taking my stuff off and I heard the crowd's reaction, and I was just like, 'There's no way.'"
Harper also said that, during his post-ejection interaction with Hernandez, Hernandez told him that, "if I saw the replay, I would know that I was wrong." After replay footage proved that Harper was not even close to swinging, Hernandez must wish he could have that comment back.
Yet, let's not ignore the real hero of this story: Dorfman's father, Aaron, who secured the souvenir for his son. While wrestling it away from a few other adults, Dorfman kept saying, "Give it to the kid," in order to get their hands off — and it worked. Dad's always know how to be heroes.
As for the helmet's future?
"I'm probably going to put it in my room," Dorfman said.
A wise choice.
